Fascinating food in New York and occasionally farther afield

Finalists in the Newest Vendy Category, Best Breakfast

In its 14th year of celebrating the best street-food vendors in New York City, the annual Vendy Awards will feature a new category, Best Breakfast. These five finalists — who serve Southern Chinese rice rolls, Mexican tamales, Austin-style breakfast tacos, homestyle Greek fare, and South Indian dosas and uthappams — will compete on Governors Island on September 22. (In total, 25 vendors will go head-to-head in five categories; tickets here.)

Cheong Fun "Rice Noodle" Cart
Lai Sheng Zhang and his wife, Natalie Wu (first photo), are from Guangzhou, China. When they came to the US, Lai Sheng first worked as a cab driver. While the cart had been on Bowery and Grand Street for over 10 years, it wasn’t until Lai Sheng and his wife took over the business 4 years ago that it gained the notoriety it is known for today. Lines start forming at 7:30am for traditional southern Chinese breakfast staples including curry fish balls and rice noodles smothered with soy sauce, peanut sauce, hot sauce and topped off with a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Also sold are ready-to-order rice rolls that are prepared in a steamer and wrapped around fillings such as ground chicken, corn, and eggs. While they serve traditional breakfast foods, they are out until 5pm so you can have breakfast for lunch and even dinner. Lai Sheng and Natalie live in Chinatown with their 2 sons.

Evelia's Tamales Mexicanos
Evelia Coyotzi’s path to her tamale cart began after 9/11 when she couldn’t return to her fast food job located in downtown Manhattan. She started selling tamales, a traditional Mexican breakfast dish made of masa and steamed in a corn husk, from a grocery shopping cart, but with increasing popularity was able to upgrade to a larger cart which she uses today. Evelia sets up every day at 4am at the corner of Junction Blvd and Roosevelt Avenue in Corona, Queens where she offers varieties of chicken, mole, and adobo tamales along with hot drinks such as champurrado (a type of Mexican hot chocolate) and arroz con leche (hot rice milk). Positioned right outside the train station, Evelia's tamales are how many local residents start their day for breakfast and she is usually sold out by 11am.

King David Tacos
As a native Austinite, Liz Solomon Dwyer's love for breakfast tacos was unwavering but she couldn’t find anything that could compare since she moved to NYC 12 years ago. Liz decided to start King David Taco, named after her late father, to take on his challenge to bring Austin-style breakfast tacos to the streets of NYC. In 2016 she left her career in advertising and with her husband Nate, started NYC’s first breakfast taco cart. With a location in Prospect Park and a 2nd cart in the Wall Street neighborhood, the tacos are prepared just like they are in Austin. Five inch flour tortillas are directly sourced from Austin and contain 4 types of fillings: the "BPEC" (bacon, potato, egg, and cheese), the "Queen Bean" (refried beans, eggs, potato and cheese), the "Ori'izo" (Mexican chorizo, egg, potato, and cheese) and "Mom's Migas" (eggs, tortilla chips, salsa, jalapenos, and cheese). You can check out King David Tacos’ website here. Find them on Facebook and Instagram.

Mama Jo's Breakfast Cart
Joanna Despas, better known as "Mama Jo" to her customers, has been serving breakfast on the corner of 47th Street and Park Ave for 35 years. After running donut shops in the 1980s, she decided to branch out to the food cart business. She originally served breakfast and lunch but after being hit by a car in 2001, she cut back her hours to focus just on breakfast. Starting at 2am until 11am, you can find Jo's exuberant energy preparing breakfast sandwiches, omelettes, and pastries, but what sets her cart apart are the Greek dishes such as spanakopita, kolokithopita, and olive bread — all made from scratch, and what she grew up making with her grandmother in Greece. She lives on Long Island with her husband and enjoys fishing in her spare time. Find her on Facebook.

Saravana Bhavan
When Yunus Shahul immigrated from India to the US in July 2005, he had a meal at Saravana Bhavan, a South Indian restaurant chain that started in Chennai and had an outpost in Manhattan. That meal transported him right back to Chennai. He ended up applying for a job at that very restaurant and 10+ years later, he and his wife now operate the restaurant along with two other locations in the Upper West Side and Long Island. In March 2018, they launched their food truck and now serve some of their restaurant favorites including dosas and uthappams, in downtown Manhattan.